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With Vladimir Tarasenko set to become a restricted free agent, the St. Louis Blues are expected to be quiet on the UFA front.

"We'll talk to our own restricted free agents, but we're going to stay away from the unrestricteds until we find out what Vladi’s intentions are," Blues GM Doug Armstrong said. "If we can find the depth player that we want, we're going to fill out our roster. But as far as making a significant addition to our team, we're not looking for a top-five defenseman or a top-10 forward until we get Vladi done." Part of the reason for that is the Blues want to keep enough cap space free to guard against an offer sheet should Tarasenko sign one. The fact that Armstrong is in a strong position to match any potential offer sheet might be enough to convince other teams that it's not worth it. Jul 1 - 10:37 AM

Hitchcock signed a one-year contract with the St. Louis Blues for the 2015-16 campaign. The length of his deal shouldn't be taken as a sign that he's on thin ice, if for no other reason than the fact that one-year extensions have been the norm between Hitchcock and the Blues for a while now. "There's a sense where you have to perform with a one-year contract," Hitchcock said. "I like it. I don't know how to describe it. You're coaching like it's your first and last year. You have to stay sharp ... I like anything that doesn't allow me to live in the past or in the future. I want to stay in the now and not take anything for granted." May 29 - 10:26 AM

Coach Ken Hitchcock wants the Blues to play a more "reckless" brand of hockey in 2015-16.

"(Our style is) too conservative, it's too careful, it's too much skill ahead of work," he said. "We've got to get back to reckless. We've got more skill than we've ever had since I've been here. But skilled, careful hockey doesn't win. You've got to play reckless. We need to get back to the reckless play we had before. That's what Doug and I talked about. You can do it and still be responsible. But we've got to get back to reckless play. We've got to ask more people to be involved offensively and defensively." Hitchcock and GM Doug Armstrong want to add more speed to the lineup going into next year to help match their new game plan. May 27 - 4:48 PM

Ken Hitchcock will be back behind the bench in St. Louis for the 2015-16 season.

Coach Hitchcock has signed a one-year contract with the Blues after his future with the club was cloudy following another short playoff appearance. St. Louis has been incredibly successful during the regular season under Hitchcock, but he's won just one playoff series in four seasons. May 26 - 11:20 AM

Depth Charts

David Backes notched a goal and an assist in Game 4 to help the Blues even up their firs round playoff series against Minnesota.

The Blues cruised to a 6-1 victory and Backes got the scoresheet after being held pointless in his previous three outings. Backes was back with Alexander Steen and T.J. Oshie in the contest and he logged a series-high20:15 of ice time.

The Blues have re-signed Jori Lehtera for three years and $14.1 million.

Lehtera will average $4.7 million per season. He excelled last season and performed at a level far above what most hockey experts predicted. Although Lehtera tired to a degree in the second half he still put up 44 points in 75 games. Look for Lethera to move between the Blues' second and third lines next season. He is certainly worthy of a late round draft pick in hockey pools regardless of format.

St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong wants to see more from Paul Stastny going forward.

"Paul Stastny needs to be a bigger part of our group," Armstrong told Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman. "He’s our highest-paid player, we need him to be a bigger and better part of our team." Stastny had just 16 goals and 46 points in 74 games and he had just one goal in six postseason games in 2014-15.

Kyle Brodziak has signed a one-year contract worth $900K with the St. Louis Blues.

Brodziak will be entering his age-31 season when October rolls around, and accumulated just 25 goals and 56 points over the last three seasons for Minnesota. Which is a notable drop off from his combined 47 goals and 133 points with the Wild the trio of seasons prior to that. Known more for his quality defensive play, Brodziak will help to sure up the Blues' bottom six forward corps.

Alex Steen registered two assists in Saturday's 4-1 win over Minnesota in game two of their series.

Steen picked up the primary assists on both of Vladimir Tarasenko's first two goals of the game (he finished with three goals on the night). Steen has been an important part of St. Louis' offense during the season and that hasn't changed in the playoffs. The 31-year-old has a goal and three points in two playoff games this year. The series is now tied at one.

Jaden Schwartz was back with Vladimir Tarasenko and Jori Lehtera in Game 4 versus the Wild.

He didn't pick up a point in the contest, but he had three shots and a plus-1 rating. The trio was excellent for the Blues during the regular season. Schwartz didn't have a point in both games at Minnesota, but he had a goal and an assist at home to begin the series.

Now would be a good time for the Blues to do so because they are facing elimination going into game six. "Absolutely, I put it on ourselves more than what they are doing," said Ott. "Obviously they've got a good team over there and their goaltender played very well, made some key, key saves. We have to find a way to solve him. We knew it was going to be a heck of a series and now we have to go there and win a game.

The St. Louis Blues have signed Jordan Caron to a one-year, two-way deal.

Caron became an unrestricted free agent after the Colorado Avalanche decided not to qualify him. He played in 30 games with the Avalanche and Boston Bruins last season, but failed to record a single point.

Magnus Paajarvi has agreed to a one-year, $700,000 contract extension.

The deal is one-way so Paajarvi will earn that amount even if the Blues send him to the minors. He had an assist in 10 games with St. Louis and another 29 points in 36 AHL contests last season. He had filed for arbitration, but this deal obviously makes that moot.

Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said the Blues cleared out enough cap space to make sure they could sign Vladimir Tarasenko long-term.

They also did not want to be vulnerable to an offer sheet, or be forced to trade him away like the Bruins (Dougie Hamilton) and Blackhawks (Brandon Saad) did with their young stars. "This is the first year we saw the leveling off of the cap and some (teams) were hampered by that leveling off," Armstrong said. "As a market our size, we love to see the growth of game, but it's difficult for a lot of the franchises to be spending at that $70-plus million … selfishly we were happy to see that there was a leveling off."

The St. Louis Blues have acquired Troy Brouwer, Pheonix Copley and a 2016 third round pick from the Washington Capitals in exchange for T.J. Oshie.

Brouwer had 21 goals and 43 points in 82 contests in 2014-15. He's a clear step down from Oshie from an offensive perspective, but he does play a more physical game. We don't believe this trade will meaningfully alter Brouwer's fantasy value.

Patrik Berglund generated a goal and added an assist in Game 4's 6-1 win over Minnesota.

It was a tough season offensively for the 26-year-old Swede, but he's been productive in the playoffs with two goals and four points in four games. Berglund is also tied for first with a plus-5 rating. He skated with Paul Stastny and Dmitrij Jaskin in the match.

St. Louis got a lift in Game 4 when Ryan Reaves scored his first goal since Mar. 1.

He opened the scoring in the Blues' 6-1 victory over Minnesota. "That goal was huge," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "Everyone is so excited when 'Reavo' scores, and when that line has success everybody's excited for them." Reaves had six goals and 116 penalty minutes in 81 games during the regular season.

The Blue Jackets have been busy this summer trying to acquire a defenseman.

According to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post-Dispatch, the Blue Jackets were involved in trade talks for Dougie Hamilton before he got dealt to the Flames, they made an offer for Paul Martin before he accepted one from the Sharks, and they have contacted the Blues about Kevin Shattenkirk. General manager Jarmo Kekalainen "won’t rush the process just to add a body," and thinks the group is good enough if healthy.

When asked about what St. Louis has to do to get back into their first round series against Minnesota, Alex Pietrangelo said "win the next game".

The Blues find themselves facing elimination going into Sunday's game six action in Minnesota. "We've still got two hockey games to play," said Pietrangelo. "We're not going to hang our heads here, we know we've got to play better. We'll take a hard look at ourselves and get ready for game six."

Jay Bouwmeester admitted that he never got back to 100% in 2014-15 after suffering a groin injury on Nov. 22.

"I didn't really feel like myself for a good part of the year," Bouwmeester said. "I didn't have a very good year especially after that happened." He had two goals and 13 points in 72 contests last season after recording 37 points in his previous campaign. He feels fine now though and it wouldn't be shocking to see him bounce back in 2015-16.

Terms were not disclosed. Butler was a frequent scratch in 2014-15 and will likely find himself in the pressbox quite often again this season. With nine points in 33 games Butler is not a fantasy asset.

Brian Elliott admitted it was tough for him to finish the season on the bench.

"It's not easy when you play all year and then you're just sitting on the bench and you don't really feel like you can make a difference," he said. "It's always tough for anybody when you're on the outside looking in." He added that the situation was out of his control, so it's not worth dwelling on and he'll be ready next season when he gets his chance to play. Elliott is projected to compete with Jake Allen for starts in 2015-16.

Allen will earn $2.2 million in 2015-16 and then $2.5 million the following season. That's a substantial raise over his previous two-year, $1.6 million deal. Not that it's surprising after he posted a 2.28 GAA and .913 save percentage in 37 games last season.